February 25, 2009

Behold The Consequences Of Sitting Out

As you may know by now, I am not a big fan of the "sit out to send a message" theory of voting. I may not like who gets a nomination, but I sure as hell won't sit out or vote for a no hope third party, because to do so is in essence a vote for the other side. In fact, Arlen Specter may be one of the first times in my memory where I don't give a flying fuck if a primary challenger beats an incumbent, but loses the General Election*.

If you didn't vote -- rather out of apathy, antipathy to McCain, or anger at Bush -- well, this is the consequence.

A lot of Republicans sat on the sidelines last election or even crossed party lines. To some extent the election was a referendum on Republican management of the country -- but you can't just vote on the management. You also vote, inescapably, on ideology. And this is the ideology that has been ushered in.

I may be wrong, but that's my $.02.

*I exclude cases such as Palin beating Murkowski in 2006, because at the time, whoever won the GOP Primary was probably the clubhouse leader for the General Election anyway.